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UK unemployment rose by 7,000 to 2.52 million between November and January,
according to official figures. Employment was up 590,000 on a year earlier while
real pay levels fell.

The number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance in February fell by 1,500 to
1.54 million, the lowest level since June 2011, the
Office for National Statistics said. The jobless rate held at 7.8%.

George Osborne, chancellor of the exchequer,
begins his 2013 Budget speech at 12:30p pm today.

The number of young people aged 16-24 without a job rose to
993,000 over the three months, taking the youth unemployment rate to 21.2%.

Total pay and regular pay rose by 1.2%
compared with November 2011 to January 2012. However as
inflation measured by the Consumer Prices Index was 2.7% between January 2012
and January 2013, there continues to be a cut in the real value of pay.

The employment rate for men aged from 16 to 64
was 76.5% for November 2012 to January 2013, unchanged from August to October
2012. The corresponding employment rate for women was 66.6%, up 0.5 percentage
points from August to October 2012. The number of people in employment was 29.73
million for November 2012 to January 2013, up 131,000 from August to October
2012 and up 590,000 on a year earlier. The number of people in full-time
employment was 21.68 million for November 2012 to January 2013, up 195,000 from
August to October 2012. The number of people in part-time employment was 8.06
million, down 64,000 from August to October 2012.

Neil Carberry, director for employment &
skills, at the CBI, the UK's main business lobby
group, said: “Unemployment has dropped over the past year but the pace of
progress has stalled due to sluggish economic performance.

“This emphasises the need for the Government to deliver growth-enhancing
measures on housing, infrastructure and access to finance.

“There are some hopeful signs - the private sector created over seven times as
many jobs as were lost in the public sector in the last quarter of 2012 and
recent growth in employment has been increasingly full-time, rather than
part-time.”

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